Home sweet home?
by The confused gamer
Summary: Chell finds herself back at her hometown only for Wheatley to crash land back on Earth and get taken in by GLaDOS. Android Wheatley later on.
1. The Barn

_Wow, this game_ has _been out for, what, 5 years? And I'm only NOW writing a fanfic. Better late than never, I guess. Hope you enjoy it anyway, I'll try to be as original as I can, but I'll probably end up accidentally copying ideas from other, more well known fanfics, so, sorry in advance, you probably aren't going to read anything new. Disclaimer over, Let's get on with what you came here for._

"I'm finally free from Aperture." This thought keeps circling in Chell's mind as she walks through the field, following the gap of crops in the field left by a tractor many years ago, hoping to find a road. It has only been half an hour since she heard _her_ voice for the last time, and she can barely see the little hut she came out of now. The companion cube is singing to her, she loves it. The sky is turning a nice dark orange colour as the sun begins to set. What seems like hours pass, and it's getting dark when just out of the corner of her eye, she sees it. A barn. Perfect. Chell runs over with her remaining energy and put the companion cube down. "This should be enough shelter for tonight" she thinks to herself as she starts a campfire with some hay.

Chell is warming herself up at the fire, leaning against a singing companion cube. "It's dark already, must be about October" She thinks. A cold breeze runs through the air, and Chell leans back onto her back, and stares at the ceiling, just relaxing. This is something she hasn't been able to do for the longest time. she starts staring at each dent in the roof, when her eyes come across a hole in the roof. She suddenly has a flashback, causing her to sit up. "The moon." she thinks, and when she looks a little closer, she sees something that makes her stomach drop. A blue light and an orange light. There's no doubt what, or _who_ they were. This sparks an internal conflict in her brain. "He deserves it." "I don't think he was fully in control, he can't have been" "Think about how much he hurt you, he doesn't deserve our pity" "What if he regrets it?" "SHUT UP! Chell yells out that last thought by accident, thank goodness no one else heard except companion cube who has stopped singing. She pats the cube lightly, and decides that deciding how to feel about Wheatley will have to wait until at least tomorrow. For now, Chell covers her body up to her head in hay and falls slowly asleep, staring at the moon.

 _Sorry this chapter is so short, let me know if you want me to make more of this, thanks for reading!_


	2. The Planet

"Mmm so much space. Ba ba ba ba. Wanna see it all. Fly off to mars." Wheatley glances over to the chattering core for a second, snapping out of a trance like gaze at the Earth. He sighs heavily. "Don't wanna burst your bubble or anything, mate, but I don't think we'll be going anywhere anytime soon. Just, floating... in space..." Wheatley has tried to calculate how many days it would be until he loses his mind, but the calculation keeps getting smaller. "I'll say I'll have lost it by the end of the week at this point...That would be a sight to see, if I were to land on earth somehow. Hell, I bet she'd _laugh_ if she saw me like that..." Another sigh. It has only been 3 hours since he was shot into space, and ironically, he was starting to _worry_ about Chell, and what GLaDOS has done to her. Let her go? Not likely. More testing? Maybe, but the facility is destroyed. "Well done, moron" Wheatley thinks to himself. Maybe she was..."No." He thinks. "She isn't _that_ cruel. besides, she saved her. She wouldn't do that just to kill her." His train of thought is interrupted by space core. "Hey. Hey. Guess what?" Wheatley decides to humour him. "What is it?" He isn't expecting much of an answer. "Hey, hey...We're in space." Wheatley has had enough. "Yeah, that's great, mate. I'm gonna go into sleep mode, wake me up in...Y'know what, never mind." Wheatley looks at the big blue planet once more before closing his eye an going into sleep mode.

"ARGH! GRAB ME GRA..." Wheatley wakes up from sleep mode suddenly. He looks around him. "Yep, still here." He says, but when he looks at earth, something looks...odd. The Earth looks bigger, a lot bigger. He has no time to ponder on the topic as he suddenly feels something. Gravity. "Wha- How long have I been out?!" He yells over to the space core. "Ba. ba. ba. Sleep mode. Mmmm. Sleeping 2 months. Sleeping in space." Gravity is getting stronger, and Wheatley is starting to panic. (Nothing new there.) "W-we weren't anywhere NEAR the Earth 2 months ago! What's happening!" There's loads of places they could land, but Wheatley is only thinking about on place. "Anywhere, _ANYWHERE_ except Aperture." He doesn't know what she would do to him, but he has a pretty good idea of what would happen. They start falling faster to Earth, and Wheatley starts thinking. "Who am I kidding. I deserve to go back there. Whatever she has planned still wouldn't make up for what I did to Chell. And the facility too." If it were anyone else, it would be impossible, but with his luck, Wheatley probably will end up in Aperture somehow. Suddenly, Space core flies off in another direction as gravity starts to feel like the vacuum into space when Chell shot that portal. This is bringing back horrible memories for Wheatley (as if he didn't think about what happened enough) Suddenly, everything goes black.


	3. The asteroid

Chell hangs up the last piece of furniture in her new home, or rather, her old home. When she arrived back in her hometown, Asriel, she couldn't believe it. She forgot how close she lived to Aperture, and to add to the shock, her house was a wreck. She managed to buy it for next to nothing, but it has taken her 2 months to repair the damage and decorate with basics. As time consuming as it was, it has taken her mind off of Aperture. Almost everyone she knew from the town had moved away except for one person. Helen. Helen was her best friend when she lived in Asriel, and they recognised each other almost immediately. Chell sits down on her sofa next to Helen. "Chell, this place looks great!" Helen says, admiring the light blue paint on the walls. Sunlight was shining through the windows, and a cold chill is in the air. "I can't believe this is the same house you bought 2 months ago!" she says to Chell, taking a sip from her cup of tea. Chell replies "Yeah, I know." Chell _does_ talk, she just doesn't want to. She has only really spoken to Helen. She didn't speak to GLaDOS because she didn't want to give her the reaction she was looking for when she made stupid comments and such at the end of each test, and she didn't talk to...him...because, well, to be honest, she didn't really trust him 100% at any point, not to mention the fact that her voice was practically dead when she woke after sleeping for however long it was. She's happy with the result of her home, but Aperture keeps lingering at the back of her mind, she's constantly thinking about what would happen if GLaDOS got bored and decided she wanted her back, or if _he_ was to somehow return. She would even go out at night sometimes and just stare at the two cores in space. Not even thinking, just... _staring._ Helen understands her concerns and tries to reassure her that she's safe, Chell appreciates it. "I've definitely felt a lot safer since I've been sleeping in a bed instead of a sleeping bag." She says, jokingly. Helen turns to look out the window, and gasps. Her eyes shrink. "Shit." she says quietly. Chell is scared. "Wh-what is it?" she asks, not really wanting an answer. Helen replies with something that Chell _really_ didn't want to hear "Chell...We need to go outside." Chell runs out of the house in a hurry and sees what appears to be a blue asteroid. "Not now." Chell thinks. "I was only _just_ starting to forget." Chell is staring up at it, or _him_. An entire crowd has formed, watching in awe, or in Chell's case, dread, as she knows exactly what it is, but she doesn't know whether to feel angry or concerned. Suddenly, Chell starts to run. "Wait, where are you going?!" Helen yells. No response.

Wheatley is getting closer to the ground, and Chell is struggling to keep up. Suddenly, a thought hits her. "If he's alive, what will I do with him? I don't know whether to forgive him or not yet, hell, I don't even know if he regrets anything yet, but there's only one way to find out." Just as she reaches the little hut, Wheatley crashes into the ground and the explosion forces Chell backwards. When Chell manages to get up and regain her senses, Wheatley is in a mini crater in the ground. Before she can do anything, the door slams open and a metal claw reaches out and grabs Wheatley's handle, pulling him in. Just then, _her_ voice is heard. It's terrifying. "It's been a looong time." The claw lingers for a bit, and drops him into the pit. Chell considers jumping, but she has to go get a certain pair of boots first.


	4. The wake up call

"Urgh...grab..mme...wha?" Wheatley wakes up from blacking out from the fall. He's still coming to his senses when he hears a voice he hadn't heard in 2 months and hadn't planned on hearing it again. His optic shrinks. "Oh, _good._ You are alive." The voice echoes through the room in a sarcastic tone. Wheatley opens his eye wide and finds himself in the room where everything went wrong. The room where the core transfer had taken place. And there she was, looking down at him, her eye half closed. GLaDOS. Wheatley can't say anything, he's paralyzed in fear. He's back. Fate must have decided that being trapped in space was too good for him. "Don't look so shocked. I'm not going to kill you or anything." GLaDOS says in a slightly suspicious tone. Unfortunately, that tone in her voice sails right over Wheatley's head. He then replies relived, "Oh, really?" This causes her to chuckle a bit. "Oh yes. I'm going to make sure you stay alive during what I have planned." This time, Wheatley caught on to what she was implying, and all he could do is let out a barely audible whimper as a claw picks him up and lifts him until he's almost face to face with GLaDOS. Her voice turns sinister. "Let the games begin." She says, in almost exactly the same way Wheatley had. Suddenly, a hole appears in the ground and Wheatley is dropped. Again.

"Urgh...where am I..." Wheatley says slowly, rubbing his face with his hand. Wait. Face? HAND?! Wheatley yells in confusion and looks at his hands, confused. Once he manages to calm down, he slowly stands up. "Wh-why did you make me look like a human?!" He yells, hoping she can hear him, but at the same time, hoping she can't. Suddenly he jumps when he hears her voice. "Am I going to have to explain _everything_ to you? I made you an _android_ because I don't think a ball would be able to complete a test chamber, no matter how smart they are, and you _definitely_ aren't smart. The portal gun is in the test chamber just ahead, you can figure out how to use it yourself." Wheatley reluctantly walks into the first test chamber, shaking. The portal gun is there, just as she said. He looks around to see what he's working with. He's starting to understand how _she_ felt. "Her." he thinks. He can only stare at the ground just at the thought of her, and what he'd put her through. It's unlikely he'll ever fully forgive himself for that. GLaDOS picks up on this, and decides to strike. "This is one of the more simple tests, by the way. Not as complex and dangerous as the ones you made for _her._ " Wheatley tries his best to ignore this comment and solve the puzzle. It only takes him 3 attempts to solve it, to GLaDOS's surprise. He even managed to solve it with shaky hands. "Congratulations." she says, dryly. "Maybe you aren't as stupid as I thought. No, you are." Wheatley cautiously steps into the elevator and it goes down.

Just as Wheatley leaves the elevator GLaDOS says something to him. "Here's an interesting fact: Those elevators are the same as the one you used to punch me and her into that pit." Wheatley cringes at this "fact". Suddenly, an idea pops into his head, but before he says anything, he has a think. "Should I ask her? She probably won't answer. Why not find out?" Wheatley clears his "Throat" before saying "Um...Do you happen to kn-know what...what happened to...her?" Becoming more scared through the sentence. GLaDOS thinks for a minute before responding. "Well I wasn't going to mention it, but since you asked I guess I'll tell you. She died due to...I think it was **lack of oxygen.** "

 _Sorry (not really) for the cliff-hanger._


	5. The surprise

Wheatley's pupils shrink. He can't believe it, he's frozen in shock. "Lack of oxygen" Those 3 words are stuck in his head. It must have been from being in space. _It's his fault she's dead. He's a murderer._ He backs away slowly until his back is against the wall. He tries to utter out a sentence. "I...I didn't g-get to...I...can't..." His voice is cracking up, and if he could, he would be crying. He slowly sits down, his knees pressed against his body, trying to take in the information. GLaDOS honestly wasn't expecting his reaction to be this serious, but decides to make use of this. "What would you have done if she was alive anyway? You seemed fine with the concept of her being dead before." She says, coldly. Wheatley looks over to the exit of the test chamber. "I...I wanted to...I would have said..." GLaDOS chuckles sharply. "What? Say sorry? She wouldn't have wanted to see you again, never mind accept your apology." Wheatley looks away, but he believes her.

"Are you crazy? You can't go back _there!_ And for HIM?!" Helen had heard about what happened with Wheatley and GLaDOS during Chell's stay at Aperture, and was shocked to find Chell running back into her house to get her long fall boots. Chell sighs. "I know he tried to kill me, but I don't think it was his fault. He was completely different when he wasn't connected to the mainframe, even GLaDOS was acting more human when she wasn't attached to it." Chell locks the front door and hands the key to Helen. "And even if he doesn't regret anything, he can't hurt me." She says, hugging Helen before she starts to run back to Aperture.

"You're doing awful." GLaDOS says, bored by his weak attempts to solve the puzzle. He doesn't care about what she's saying, he can only think about Chell. "I...I killed her." GLaDOS didn't expect him to be affected so much by this lie, but at least she isn't the one feeling bad, or at least she has convinced herself that she doesn't. Then she feels it. that part of her she thought she had deleted. Caroline is still there, and she actually feels _sympathy_ for the little moron. "Are you serious? Do you have _any_ idea of the damage that was done to this place?" GLaDOS thinks to herself. Suddenly from her head, she gets a response. "Yes, but that was when he was attached to the mainframe, _we_ even acted different when we weren't attached to the mainframe, and he obviously hates himself for it now." GLaDOS shakes off this thought just in time to see Wheatley pass the test and move on into the elevator. "I have a _surprise_ for you in the next test chamber" GLaDOS says, and Wheatley starts to shake. The elevator stops and Wheatley enters the next test chamber. It looks almost impossible. There is a tiny path over water, lined up on each side of the path is turrets, and there's some "mashy spike plates" as Wheatley called them on the ceiling waiting to drop down, and no portal surfaces. The only way to the exit it over the path. Wheatley tries anyway, to GLaDOS's amusement. He takes one step onto the path and half of the turrets fire at him. He runs back to an area out of their range while being shot at, and nearly collapses due to being shot. GLaDOS laughs quietly. "I suppose I did make this one quite difficult. Tell you what. I'll make it easier. I'll take away the turrets and the crushers." she says as a button appears from the ground. "All you have to do is push that button." Wheatley sighs with relief and slowly walks over to the button. Just as his hand touches the button, it explodes, sending Wheatley flying backwards. "Surprise." GLaDOS says bluntly. Wheatley can't move from shock and his injuries from the turrets and explosions. Suddenly GLaDOS hears an alarm. Not long after that something, or someone lands behind her from the elevator shaft. GLaDOS spins around quickly and sees _her._


	6. The reunion

_Sorry this is kinda late, School has been really busy recently and I'm starting my first exams in may, I'll hopefully be able to complete the story sooner rather than later, but I can't promise anything. Enjoy!_

No words are exchanged for a good 30 seconds, they are both just staring at each other in shock. GLaDOS turns off the test chamber speakers so that Wheatley can't hear anything she wouldn't want him hearing. "So, you came back, after I saved your life, let you go free _and_ gave you your companion cube? You must have missed me. I Haven't missed you, and unfortunately I can't give you tests since I'm already preoccupied with a new test subject." She says, almost in a friendly manner. Chell is relieved to hear that she won't have to go through any tests, but is slightly suspicious of who the new test subject is. Chell narrows her eyes slightly as if to say _Where is he?_ and GLaDOS realises why she's here, and says, "I know why you're here. You must have seen the asteroid falling too, well, the moronic asteroid. Don't worry about him, He's my new test subject-would you feel more satisfied if I put him in the incinerator?" Chell realises that if she wants GLaDOS to know what she wants, she's going to have to speak. Chell takes a deep breath, relaxes, and says, "I...I want to see him." GLaDOS was not prepared for that, and is taken back. Her optic shrinks slightly and she says, "You...you've never spoken before..." Chell doesn't know what to say in response, but she eventually says, "I...didn't trust you before." GLaDOS thinks about what to do next, and then says, "Hmph. very well then, maybe it's time for a little reunion." And she moves a screen closer to Chell which shows Wheatley in the test chamber, and in the test chamber a few panels flip over. Wheatley turns to look at them, and freezes when he sees _her_.

Chell is surprised to see him as a human and once the initial shock disappears, she still doesn't know how to react. Neither does Wheatley, he's just staring at her, he can't believe she's alive, never mind back in Apertu-Wait...she's alive? Wheatley looks over to the side of Chell, hoping to see GLaDOS and angrily says, "You lied to me!" This makes GLaDOS chuckle and she turns and faces the screen. "Oh, yes. Oh well, I'm sure it makes no difference to you if she's alive or dead." She turns to Chell. "You should have seen the look on his face when I told him he had killed you, He was _over the moon._ " Wheatley cringes at this and tries to protest. "What?! No, I-I would never...I...I..." He trails off once he realises that she won't believe him no matter what he says. He slowly sits down and presses his knees against his chest, defeated. GLaDOS laughs and decides to play with his mind a bit more. She says, "Take a good look at her, because soon she will be in the incinerator." As she is speaking, a claw reaches down from the ceiling and grabs Chell, lifting her up. Just as Chell is above a hole in the floor, presumably leading to the incinerator, Wheatley yells out, "NO! DON'T HURT HER!" This is followed by silence. GLaDOS is the first to speak again and almost coldly says, "What makes you think that you have any right to be protecting her? You nearly killed her. _Willingly._ Are you trying to make up for it? That won't be nearly enough." After a pause Wheatley quietly says "I know..." staring at the floor. GLaDOS continues. "Did you really think she would trust you after what you di-" she is cut off when Chell speaks up and boldly says, "I trust him." This leaves both Wheatley and GLaDOS in shock. Wheatley then says, "But...after everything...You should hate me, I...I don't understand..." Chell smiles slightly at this and says, "I know about what happened, and It's not entirely your fault. The mainframe corrupted you, making you want to kill me." Chell then turns to GLaDOS and says, "I've seen what happens when a core gets disconnected from the mainframe. They're...different." GLaDOS sighs, defeated. "You know what? You've spent enough time here. I think I'd like to make a deal with you."


	7. The surface

Chell is intrigued. "What do you mean?" she asks, not sure if this is a good idea. GLaDOS then says "Well I'm hoping you would-FINALLY- leave me alone if I give you something in return." Chell can see where this is going. She says "Okay then. What would you give me?" She's actually starting to get comfortable talking to GLaDOS, almost like she's a friend. GLaDOS gestures over to Wheatley. "I'll give you him back, I'll even turn him back into a metal ball for you so you can kick him about easier." Chell tries not to laugh when Wheatley yells "I heard that!" and GLaDOS then says "I know" in a very confident way. Chell decides to test her limits. She pretends to think about the offer and then slyly says "Maybe..." GLaDOS realises that the offer isn't good enough and sighs. "What if I give you the other cores too?" Chell is slightly confused and asks "Aren't they in space?" This makes GLaDOS laugh. "Yes, but I can get them back. How do you think we get moon rocks for the conversion gel?" Chell decides that's fair enough. Not long after that Wheatley yells out "Are you kidding me? So you could have brought me back to earth at any time but you didn't?!" GLaDOS stares at him and bluntly says "Yes, but the only reason I would have done that was if I got bored." Wheatley decides not to talk after that, realising the implications of what she just said. Chell then says "Okay. If you give me all of the cores from space and Wheatley, I'll leave you alone." GLaDOS lets out a sigh of relief and says "Oh, good. They shouldn't take too long, and if they do, someone is going to end up in android hell." There is a short period of silence before GLaDOS says "It's going to be so peaceful once you're gone. Just like the old days when I was first booted up." Just as she finishes that sentence, a tube comes out of the wall and stops at Chell. Three cores fall out of the tube at Cells feet. Chell picks the space core and puts him in the elevator. "Hey. Hey. Hey lady. Where we going? We going to space?" Chell laughs slightly at this and grabs the adventure core, or Rick. "Hey there, pretty lady. You wouldn't _believe_ the adventure I've just been on, it was out of this world." Chell just rolls her eyes at this and goes to get the fact core. As she picks it up it says "All the coal, oil, gas and wood on Earth would only keep the sun burning a few days" Of course it was a space fact. Just as she puts the fact core into the elevator, a claw picks up Wheatley and he disappears. It doesn't take long until a claw comes out from the roof and Wheatley regains consciousness. GLaDOS then says "Here you go, your 4 cores as promised, now, please leave." She then drops Wheatley who proceeds to yell and brace himself before he hits the floor, except he doesn't hit the floor. He opens his eye and sees Chell looking down at him. He's a core again. He stares up in shock. "You...you caught...me..." Chell smiles and takes him into the elevator, still holding him. As the elevator moves up GLaDOS says "And this time _I mean it_ when I say don't come back." Chell laughs and says "Okay. Goodbye, Caroline." GLaDOS laughs softly and says "Goodbye, Chell."

THE END

 _I hope you enjoyed that ending and that it wasn't to cheesy or bad, please leave constructive criticism on how I can improve, thanks!_


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